We all know you're a girl ... Lionel Shriver. Photograph: David Levene

So, Lionel Shriver was born Margaret Ann. She changed her name when she was 15, presuming a male persona would give her gravitas. Americans have a funny idea about mysterious names anyway - Lionel just makes us in the UK think of Lionel Jeffries. (Similarly, the "Graham" in sex, lies and videotape surely hinting at his, er, exotic nature. And there's always a mysterious Nigel or Kevin lurking around in yer more indie movie.)

Of course, it's been done before. George Eliot was christened Mary Ann Evans and used this pen name to guarantee that her works were taken seriously. "AS Byatt" is ambiguous, reflecting her desire to keep gender out of the equation.

Changing your name to Lionel, if you're a bird, is just great. But it's not full of portent and dark intellectual murk: it's Lionel. Lionel Mills McCartney, Lionel Price and Peter Andre and - maybe - Lionel Pattenden.

However, I initially thought that this was her birth name - those crazy Yanks - an extension of the Chesters and Masons they stylishly bestow upon their hapless brood.

Now I know different. And I feel uneasy that, in this day and age, a woman feels they will be accorded more respect if they are rendered gender-neutral, so to speak. Why should it matter? Margaret Ann Shriver sounds profound enough, surely? In the 19th century, George Eliot might have needed a leg up the literary wall to distinguish her from the romantic novelists of the age... but now? The public profile of a writer is greater than it ever used to be (though perhaps not of Jade Goody proportions). To wit: I know that Lionel is a lady - which in turn does not detract from her writing. Perhaps this adolescent concept continues purely because it's too late to change it.

It is fair to say I have dabbled in the world of the pseudonym. I wrote some, um, pop books under the name Solanas so they were placed next to the SCUM Manifesto in the library. Lately, I have toyed with the idea of using Siân Superman - not yet finding a suitable genre for this über cool (ahem) nom de plume (I think it's my Skype name - but I have never actually used Skype). Some people, not familiar with Welsh forenames, have addressed me as "Sir" in the past (in correspondence - not to my face, fortunately). But I am a woman, I can't really pretend otherwise, not being a 1920s Berlin caberet act.

Oddly, I had just invented a children's book character called Lionel Spiders when We Need To Talk To Kevin was published, so I am not sure I can use that, for fear of a lawsuit. And I stress, I think Lionel is a great name for a girl. I fear that women are still conscious of their sex when selling their work. Maybe we should just all call ourselves Lionel (Lionel Lessing, Lionel Woolf, LK Rowling etc etc) - a variation of Karen Eliot.

Maybe not. I cannot recall any male writer who has used a female name (apart from those strange pamphlets from the 50s reminding teens to retain their virginity...) Can you?